i thought you were gonna say only 5 points scored by Brazil in the 2nd quarter

i think Brazil has twice as many NBA players as the entire 1992 Olympics (outside of the US of course)

7/16/2012 9:06:06 PM

What do u mean outside of the US? Less than US?

[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 9:08 PM. Reason : make it clear]

7/16/2012 9:08:24 PM

excuse me, aside from the US

as in, every other team combined

who all did the Dream Team face, Kukoc and Divac? and Kukoc hadn't even played in the NBA yet

ok Petrovic was on Kukoc's team, and Sarunas Marcialionis was on the Bronze team

they both entered the NBA around that time, so maybe 4 players in the entire field

and Dino Rada was also on Croatia, no wonder they won the silver medal, they had 3 NBA players

fuck, Zan Tabac too! 4 NBA players on Croatia!

[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 9:14 PM. Reason : .]

7/16/2012 9:09:48 PM

In 1992, NBA is not globalized. So very few international players.

7/16/2012 9:13:48 PM

The center of Russia. I forgot his name.

7/16/2012 9:14:31 PM

also Sabonis was on the Lithuanian team, best flopping big man in Trail Blazers history

my number of intl players in the 92 games is skyrocketing, but i think half of them got drafted because of those olympics

in 2012, any decent team seems to have multiple players with NBA experience

7/16/2012 9:15:32 PM

Isn't Sabonis belonging to Russia?

7/16/2012 9:17:11 PM

Germany had Schrempf and Uwe Blab

cant find anybody else though, so i guess about 8 current/future NBA players in the entire 92 Olympics, outside of Team USA


[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 9:19 PM. Reason : ^Lithuania was a part of the Soviet Union before becoming a unified nation]

7/16/2012 9:18:30 PM

But so far this team is much poorer than the redemption team.
Although they may be still in an adjusting process.

[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 9:23 PM. Reason : add another note]

7/16/2012 9:21:34 PM

they beat (terrible) Dominica by about 55 points

they had a bad 1st quarter against Brazil and have dominated since then

Brazil, who based on my crude research, has half as many NBA players on their team as the entire 92 Olympics' international teams combined

[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 9:23 PM. Reason : no need to panic]

7/16/2012 9:22:36 PM

agreed NYM, this team could use Stiemsma he'd be a great fit on this team. But I can't blame him for wanting to rest his foot and he's a free agent so too much to ask to put him on the roster.

Plus we have Chandler who is better and I like the idea of getting Davis the experience.

Nene, Splitter, and Varejao are formidable players, but we have a huge advantage on the perimeter.

7/16/2012 9:28:53 PM

^^ Still poor so far. Remember Brazil is much weaker than euro teams.

[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 9:31 PM. Reason : add another note]

7/16/2012 9:30:42 PM

Oh yeah also, here's a great comparison of the 1992 team to the 2012 team. It shows that based on their eras the 1992 is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the 2012 team.

I agreed that they were better, but didn't realize the gap was so wide. One of the issues that is not discussed though is that the average players in the league are significantly better than they used to be 20 years ago obviously.

So while the elite players experience diminishing marginal improvements, the average players had quite a lot of improvement over that same time.

Anyway, also not factored in are the overall improvements in athletes over time so it's still debateable as to which team is actually better, but if we compare it based on eras it's pretty much a dead argument and the 1992 team is obviously better.

http://arturogalletti.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/kobes-dreaming-about-the-olympics-the-1992-dream-team-vs-the-2012-team/

Click the link for the statistical data, if you just want the recap of the data here it is below

Quote :

" Point Guard ( Magic and Stockton vs CP3, Russell and Deron) CP3 is the only guy who can keep this competitive against Magic and Stockton. He is not enough to offset Russell being Russell by himself though. Still the verdict is: Win for the Dream Team Shooting Guard ( Michael and Clyde vs Kobe,Harden and probably a little Russ and Deron) Huge Mismatch. Michael and Glyde would crush it completely here. Michael would put the glove on the opposition and completely fluster them. Best bet for the current team is Harden but I don’t think he has the maturity to handle Michael based on what we just saw in the Finals. Big Win for the Dream Team Small Forward ( Chuck, Scottie and a Legend Cameo vs The King, KD, Melo and an Iggy sighting) Lebron is a big difference maker here. I’d play him all 40 minutes if I were coaching his team (just ask spo). Chuck and Scottie are awesome but KD and Iggy hold their own. The fly in the ointment here is Melo who should not be on the team or on the floor. Bloody Draw on the Melo Factor Power Forward ( More Chuck, Mailman and Lattner vs A King/Melo/KD/Blake/Love sandwich) Dream team relies on the Mailman and gives Chuck some more. The 2012 Olympic team scrambles for a cloning machine for Lebron. They won’t find it. Big Win for the Dream Team Center ( The Admiral and Mr. Ewing vs Tyson, Kevin and probably some more Lebron) I like Tyson Chandler, in a completely platonic way of course. He keeps this from being too horrible. Win for the Dream Team So the Dream team gets 2 Big Wins, 2 wins and a draw. By the numbers they also come out as about ten points better than the current olympic team over 40 minutes. That means they would win about 80% of the games between these teams and I’d pick them to beat the 2012 Olympic team in a seven game series 4 games to 1. However, the gold medal is won on single elimination, so in theory Kobe would have a 20% chance of being right."

One thing I do disagree with is his opinion of Melo. While he clearly doesn't play at a star level in the NBA, he always seems to play great in international play. Also, I have to admit I didn't realize Magic was still such a stud in 1991. He's assuming Magic plays at the 1991 level, which I think is unrealistic given that he missed the following season due to his sexual promiscuity with men and women in the late 80's.

7/16/2012 9:36:56 PM

In 1992, basketball, as a sport born in US, is not globalized so much as now. So the gap is hugh between US and other countries. Since then, talented international players take some places of top NBA seats.

7/16/2012 9:40:40 PM

coach k trying to pull a duke here and get us upset by trash teams by jacking too many 3s

7/16/2012 9:46:32 PM

US needs Bosh! Brazil's center is beating them to death.

7/16/2012 9:46:46 PM

Arturo Galleti?

hey, doesn't he write for wagesofwins.com?

what a surprise!

7/16/2012 9:51:19 PM

someone help me out finding a box score for this game i missed the first half

7/16/2012 9:56:52 PM

I'll get right on that.

7/16/2012 10:01:28 PM

you know who the only player on the original Dream Team to score less points than Laettner was?

Stockton

he would get dominated by CP3, Deron and Westbrook

7/16/2012 10:03:39 PM

Based on what, face?

7/16/2012 10:06:22 PM

athleticism and quickness

this team's major weakness is down low...the 2 best centers in the league, Howard and Bynum, aren't on the team...big disadvantage for the 2012 squad

7/16/2012 10:06:54 PM

For PG, assist is more important than score.

7/16/2012 10:07:08 PM

True, face. Don't know how Stockton managed to get in the HOF when he was mismatched in those two categories in probably every game he ever played.

7/16/2012 10:08:24 PM

I agree fundamentally shoot, but Stockton would be a huge liability on defense, and all three of this team's guards could blow right past him for either an easy layup or an easy dish to a teammate

7/16/2012 10:08:43 PM

You think Stockton is weak on defense? He's a good football player right? He can stop everyone.
My memory for him is often stealing from sb and passing the ball to Malone.

[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 10:12 PM. Reason : add another note]

7/16/2012 10:11:19 PM

Stockton getting dominated by Westbrook is laughable. The all-time steals leader vs one of the most turnover prone PG's in the NBA.

That matchup is a huge advantage for the Dream team obviously. Now CPIII on the other hand is a different story.


Again, everyone is in agreement that the players in 2012 are better than they were in 1992 as a whole. It just so happens that the actual 1992 dream team was comprised of some amazing star power while the 2012 team is really CPIII, Lebron, Chandler and some complementary guys.

You just can't put guys like Igoudala, Carmelo, Westbrook in a class with all-time greats like David Robinson, Charles Barkley, and Clyde Drexler. And I'm not hating on Iggy by lumping him in with Melo and Westbrook. Iggy truly is a very good player.

7/16/2012 10:14:16 PM

i think he is the alltime NBA leader in steals

i just don't think he would be very effective against guys like Chris Paul and Deron Williams, who are basically Stockton with athleticism

Westbrook is more of a 2 guard who plays the point, but he's also one of the quickest players in the league and presents a matchup problem for anybody, especially if his shots are falling

and none of the 2012 PGs would be guarding Magic, they'd probably put Baby Bron Bron on him

7/16/2012 10:15:21 PM

whoa whoa whoa....

Are we really comparing Deron Williams to John Stockton now?

After the season Deron Williams just had I wouldn't feel comfortable comparing him to John Wall.

Why don't you just come out and say you think Deron Williams is a better 2 guard than Michael Jordan?

When Deron Williams starts shooting 10-15% higher from the field each year while leading the league in assists and steals we can talk about that comparison.

In the meantime, Deron Williams better be worried about New Jersey. They look like a ~.500 team and that's not going to cut it with the $$$ they are throwing around. Steve Nash has basically led a team to a .500 record by himself the last several seasons, so let's hope Deron can get there while being surrounded by $500million worth of teammates.

7/16/2012 10:22:13 PM

give Deron Williams the 2nd leading scorer in NBA history and see how well he does over a 19 year career, then claim Stockton is leaps and bounds better

7/16/2012 10:24:10 PM

^
You're on your own here. Stockton is a proven all-time great player.

7/16/2012 10:31:59 PM

every single player on the first Dream Team is proven, and every single player on this year's team still has stuff to prove (except Kobe I guess)

I'm simply saying how great would Stockton be if he didn't have Karl Malone for the majority of his two decade career, which I think is a fair point

and aside from Isaiah and Magic, what elite PGs did Stockton ever really have to face?

Wilt and Russell would be successful in the 2012 NBA, but that doesn't mean they didn't regularly go up against a lot of subpar competition

7/16/2012 10:34:37 PM

Did you listen to what Kobe said about the comparison? Every dream team player has passed his prime. But redemption team players are young and haven't reached their primes. So they may beat the dream team.

7/16/2012 10:48:58 PM

i cant remember a team of young guys ever beating a good team that was in their late 20s.

Just never happens in the NBA. Ever.

The young guys always lose for several years before they figure out how to win.

7/16/2012 11:01:26 PM

how about Hurley and Webber and company beating the first Dream Team in a scrimmage?

sure maybe Daly threw the game, but maybe he didn't

7/16/2012 11:04:58 PM

Kobe meant that they might be beaten now, but their historical places meight not be lower than dream team.
But I also doubt. It's unlikely they can get into HOF together as a team.
I think Kobe and big 3 will be recognized in the future. It's basically about how many rings you have. That's why LBJ jumped.



[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 11:14 PM. Reason : add another note]

7/16/2012 11:06:05 PM

ESPN3 allows live viewing of these exhibition games, but no replay?

[Edited on July 19, 2012 at 10:39 PM. Reason : ]

7/19/2012 10:30:56 PM

Quote :

"excuse me, aside from the US as in, every other team combined who all did the Dream Team face, Kukoc and Divac? and Kukoc hadn't even played in the NBA yet ok Petrovic was on Kukoc's team, and Sarunas Marcialionis was on the Bronze team they both entered the NBA around that time, so maybe 4 players in the entire field and Dino Rada was also on Croatia, no wonder they won the silver medal, they had 3 NBA players fuck, Zan Tabac too! 4 NBA players on Croatia!"

on Lithuania's team you're forgetting Arvydas Sabonis, and he was a lot better player at that time than when he came into the NBA old with his knees gone

The thing that sucked from a competitive standpoint in 1992 was that between 1988 and 1992 both Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union were no more. Now we would've still won, but a fraction of Yugoslavia took 2nd (Croatia) and a fraction of the Soviet Union took 3rd (Lithuania), so imagine the full teams would've given us better games.

[Edited on July 20, 2012 at 12:15 AM. Reason : .]

7/20/2012 12:13:02 AM

nowadays even brazil is loaded with nba centers

7/20/2012 12:19:20 AM

^^yeah i figured out Sabonis too, I came up with 8 total players in the international field with NBA experience either before or after the 92 games

my string of posts was on the fly though so it was confusing

but I agree a "Soviet Team" and a "Yugoslavia Team" would've been relatively decent

I just think the people who are like "oh you're crazy, the 92 Dream Team would've crushed the 2012 USA team" aren't considering a lot of factors

7/20/2012 1:10:12 AM

1988 Semis against USSR:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbUZWx5n0hw

I know Danny Manning, The Admiral, and Thunder Dan aren't anywhere close to being Dream Team levels of good, but they were still NBA-quality at the time and lost by 6 to a Gold Medal-winning USSR team with a core that would become the Lithuanian team.

Also, if you have an hour and a half, the 1972 final is up as well (edited for ESPNC). If you haven't seen it, it's a great game with that bizarre screwjob ending, plus Tommy Burleson played.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25H7rT3PfWc

This clip also includes an interview with Burleson when he actually talks about how close he was to the Israeli hostage disaster in Munich. He actually had a gun to his head at one point.

[Edited on July 20, 2012 at 9:53 AM. Reason : x]

7/20/2012 9:41:04 AM

Yeah but there's a huge difference between 20 year old kids and 28-30 year old professionals.

7/20/2012 10:07:23 AM

Quote :

"1988 Semis against USSR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbUZWx5n0hw I know Danny Manning, The Admiral, and Thunder Dan aren't anywhere close to being Dream Team levels of good, but they were still NBA-quality at the time and lost by 6 to a Gold Medal-winning USSR team with a core that would become the Lithuanian team. "

Bill Simmons in his big basketball book has a "What Ifs?" section. One of them is "what if John Thompson had actually done a good job selecting and coaching the '88 Olympics team?" If we win the gold in 1988, does the '92 Dream Team never happen?

7/20/2012 10:51:54 AM

Gonna be a tough two games coming up here on Sunday vs. Argentina & Tuesday vs. Spain. Doubt both games will have teams going very hard, but I can't see the USA just letting up & letting those two teams win. Either way, based on the slugfest we saw against Brazil, that Spain game will be very tough. Hopefully we can just pressure their guards & keep the transition game going.

7/20/2012 11:29:56 AM

vs. Argentina at 3:35 today on NBATV

7/22/2012 2:31:39 PM

Watching the game at TGI Fridays. I must be the only one in here pulling for the USA. There is even a table of RPD wearing small Argentine lapel pins. face may be on to something.

7/22/2012 3:43:55 PM

people like the underdog

they also love seeing black guys getting beat by white guys at basketball

7/22/2012 4:14:28 PM

why no david west? al jefferson? Why no low post?

7/22/2012 8:26:58 PM

How's the team look? i wasn't able to watch and haven't read anything about it yet.

7/23/2012 9:33:32 AM

started off hot, got off to a 16-1 lead, Argentina fought back, cut it to 5 I think with about 2:30 to go then Ginobli fouled out and we held on for the win

looked good at times, sloppy at other times

7/23/2012 9:37:10 AM